“O Lord, hear the cry of Judah
    and bring them together as a people.
Give them strength to defend their cause;
    help them against their enemies!”

⁸ “Judah, your brothers will praise you.
    You will grasp your enemies by the neck.
    All your relatives will bow before you.
⁹ Judah, my son, is a young lion
    that has finished eating its prey.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down;
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants,^[a]
until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,^[b]
    the one whom all nations will honor.
¹¹ He ties his foal to a grapevine,
    the colt of his donkey to a choice vine.
He washes his clothes in wine,
    his robes in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth are whiter than milk.